The Last Appeal

A California whodunit, this tale of political conspiracy and domestic tragedy tells how bereaved Pasadena attorney Peter Harrigan keeps his academic death row client, Harold Ashbourne III, from execution for the fire-bomb killings of a Berkeley professor and his son. The premise is good, a topical combination of Unabomer with American cultishness as Harrigan searches for an elusive Marxist-sect leader called Henri Debray. Also, Blum offers fine, smart, well-informed courtroom drama. Outside the courtroom, Blum falls rather easily into cliche as Harrigan (""rugged good looks, standing just over six feet tall with sandy brown hair, blue eyes, and a cleft chin that looked like it was set in granite"") falls in love with his Hispanic investigator, Josie Guzman who, besides her BMW and tasteful San Francisco digs, has ""brains, terrific writing skills, long legs [and] a butt he couldn't take his eyes off of."" (May).